As is well known in the art, the tufting or filling tool of a brush tufting machine comprises a guide block having a guide channel for a reciprocating tuft driver tongue and a reciprocating header in which the guide channel is continued. The tuft driver tongue pushes individual tufts of fiber or bristles with an anchor plate through the guide channel. Depending on the type of filling tool concerned the guide block may be either stationary or fixedly connected to the header or also movable relative thereto. In the latter case the guide block is configured as a separate pusher. The individual fiber tufts are picked by a tuft picker from a fiber box. The fiber tuft is inserted with an anchor plate or staple by the tuft driver tongue into the guide channel of the header which is fed to the surface of the brush body. When the header is located opposite to a tufting hole in the brush body the filling tool is driven into the tufting hole with anchor plate or staple. The drive for the filling tool is derived from a rotating drive shaft on which drive cams are seated non-rotatively. Running on the peripheral surface of these drive cams are cam followers from which the movement stroke of the tuft driver tongue and/or header and/or guide block is derived.
Filler tools of this kind work at a high speed or timing sequence, they being designed for a predetermined operating stroke of the header and the tuft driver tongue, as dictated by the brushes to be produced, more particularly by the length of the fibers or bristles. Although it has been proposed to control the operating stroke of the filling tool by electrical, pneumatic or hydraulic means, such systems proved to be much too slow and inaccurate.